1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a component and material traceability control apparatus, control method, control program, and control program memory medium for controlling manufacturing lot identification information of a component and material constituting a product.
2. Description of the Related Art
When there is a defect in a produced and sold product, an enterprise that has manufactured or sold the product receives not a little damage on a management thereof. Therefore, an enterprise of a manufacturing industry performs quality control in all processes from a product design to a manufacturing till a packaging. However, even how the quality control is reinforced, a possibility of an inferior quality product flowing into a market cannot be completely made zero. If the possibility of the inferior quality product flowing into the market is not completely zero, it becomes a big problem how to swiftly inquire into a cause thereof and how to recover the inferior quality product from the market without cost.
Generally, when an inferior quality problem occurs in a product, a measure of a product recovery and change is taken for a product already delivered to a market; and a measure such as a delivery stop, manufacturing stop, and the like is taken for a product before a delivery. In addition, with respect to a product made as an inferior quality product, a manufacturing date of the product, an apparatus used in a manufacturing thereof, an origin of a component and material constituting the product, and the like are traced back, and thereby a cause of the inferior quality is inferred or specified. And when the cause of the inferior quality is specified, a treatment for removing the cause is performed. In addition, when there is a defect in some of a component of a product, upon recovering the component based on a manufacturing number and manufacturing lot number thereof for the product having flowed into the market, some defective component is changed. In addition, at a manufacturing job site the manufacturing is reopened, upon changing the component used.
Thus in order to inquire into a cause of the inferior quality and to recover an inferior quality product from a market, the manufacturing number or the manufacturing lot number plays an important role.
In this connection, many industrial products are manufactured by working or assembling many components and materials (hereinafter referred to as “component/material (part)”). And in many cases the “component/material” is manufactured in other enterprises and is purchased. Accordingly, in the inferior quality of a product there are something originated in a design or a manufacturing process and something brought from outside as the inferior quality of a purchase “component/material.” Therefore, when intending to swiftly inquire into the cause and to recover the product at low cost, it is necessary to control each manufacturing number and each manufacturing lot number of the “component/material” used for each product manufactured.
Conventionally, it is already known a system of controlling each manufacturing number and manufacturing lot number of the “component/material” used for each product. For example, at paragraphs 0006 to 0026 and FIGS. 1 to 3 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-134509 (hereinafter referred to as patent document 1), at a portion where a conventional technology is described is shown an example of a traceability system for controlling the manufacturing lot number of the “component/material” used for an electronic circuit board with respect to the board manufactured. And as a technology of the patent document 1, instead of controlling the manufacturing lot number, is shown an example of the traceability system, where a manufactured electronic circuit board is designed to control a process by its passing time and to simultaneously control the manufacturing lot number of the “component/material” in each process.
In addition, at paraphrases 0006 to 0026 and FIGS. 1 to 7 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Hei. 9-252195 (hereinafter referred to as patent document 2) is shown, in an apparatus for mounting the “component/material” on an electronic circuit board, a control system of a resupply “component/material” where a history of an identification number of the “component/material” actually mounted is designed to be kept in order to enable a trace of the “component/material” mounted, when there occurs a trouble in the electronic circuit board manufactured, and to prevent an erroneous mount.
In the patent documents 1 and 2 one manufacturing number or manufacturing lot number is made to correspond to each “component/material” used in a product. Thus the “component/material” can be accurately made to correspond to the manufacturing number or manufacturing lot number. However, if attempting to accurately make the “component/material” correspond to the manufacturing number or manufacturing lot number, a manufacturing apparatus and control procedure for make the correspondence become complicated. As a result, the manufacturing cost and control cost of the product result in becoming large.
For example, with respect to a pass capacitor and the like used in an electronic circuit board, because the “component/material” itself is small, there is no space for affixing a barcode and the like for indicating a manufacturing lot number thereof. If so, the control of the manufacturing lot number can be performed in nothing but a level of a storage case for packaging the “component/material.” In that case “component/material” with a plurality of manufacturing lot numbers cannot be put in one storage case. Or, even if the “component/material” with the plurality of the manufacturing lot numbers can be put in one storage case, it results in standing extra control cost for such as being stored in specific order and making a table of the manufacturing lot numbers matching storage positions.
Consequently, for example, there is some idea of not controlling a manufacturing lot number for “component/material” such as a pass capacitor similar to “a screw and a nail.” However, in that case, when there occurs an inferior quality problem in the “component/material” not controlled, a clue for inquiring into a cause thereof is lost. In addition, for example, even when the manufacturing lot number and the like of the “component/material” with the inferior quality become clear, product recovery cost results in becoming larger because the manufacturing number of the product using the “component/material” of the inferior quality cannot be narrowed down.
Thus considering the problems of conventional technologies, it is strongly requested a traceability control apparatus, control method, control program, and control program memory medium that simplify the manufacturing lot number control of the “component/material” constituting a product, and thereby that can reduce control cost thereof.